books and authors Archives - Page 6 of 8

Pulitzer Prize-Winning Novelist Oscar Hijuelos Dies at 62

October 14, 2013

Cuban-American novelist Oscar Hijuelos who who the Pulitzer Prize for his 1989 novel The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, died of a heart attack on Saturday. He won international acclaim for his novel and was the first Latino writer to receive the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. The story of the Castillo brothers who travel from Havana to New York to start an orchestra was made into a movie starring Armand Assante and Antonio Banderas in 1992. Born in New York in 1951, Mr. Hijuelos’s work “captured the loss and triumphs of the Cuban immigrant experience.” You can read the NPR article here. Check the EPL catalog for other titles by this author, including his 2011 memoir Thoughts Without Cigarettes.

Laura

John Grisham's "A Time to Kill" Broadway Bound

October 8, 2013

John Grisham’s 1989 legal thriller A Time to Kill, which was made into a film starring Matthew McConaughey, is being adapted for the stage by Rupert Holmes and directed by Ethan McSweeny. The play, revolving around a young white Mississippi lawyer defending a black man for revenge murder, will open on Broadway October 20, two days before Sycamore Row, Grisham’s sequel to A Time to Kill is due out. Read more in this NYT article and check out the EPL catalog for other books by this best-selling novelist.

Laura

A Show That Lives Up To Its Poe-tential

October 3, 2013

“Edgar Allan Poe: Terror of the Soul” is a new exhibit opening Friday at New York’s Morgan Library & Museum. Drawn from holdings of the Morgan, the New York Public Library’s Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, and Susan Jaffe Tane, described as “the world’s foremost private Poe collector, the exhibit brings together an amazing collection of Poe materials including manuscripts, letters, first editions, Poe daguerreotypes, and “even a fragment of Poe’s original coffin.” There are some treasures as well – “three copies of Poe’s first book, “Tamerlane and Other Poems, which is among the rarest books in American literature (only 50 copies were printed, and just 12 remain), and one of only three existing pages of “The Lighthouse,” a story left unfinished at Poe’s death.” Besides all the Poe artifacts, the show also highlights his influence on other writers such as Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde, Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle, George Bernard Shaw, Vladimir Nabokov and Stephen King. Read more about the collection in this NYT article. And check the EPL catalog for works by and about this writer.

Laura

Tom Clancy, 1947-2013

October 2, 2013

Best-selling novelist of espionage thrillers Tom Clancy died Tuesday in Baltimore at the age of 66. A former insurance agent, he sold his first novel The Hunt for Red October to the Naval Institute Press for only $5,000. After the book’s publication in 1985, he was propelled to fame and fortune. And when President Ronald Reagan received a copy, he called it “my kind of yarn.” But Mr. Clancy said “writing isn’t divinely inspired – it’s hard work. You do it, and keep doing it until you get it right.” Seventeen of his novels were No. 1 on the New York Times‘ best seller lists, including his 2012 release Threat Vector. And his books including Patriot Games, The Hunt for Red October, and Clear and Present Danger were made into successful Hollywood films. His last book Command Authority is due to be published in December. Read the entire NYT obituary here. And check the EPL catalog for his works.

Laura

Lost Hemingway Story To Be Published

September 18, 2013

Ernest Hemingway’s satiric short story “My Life in the Bull Ring with Donald Ogden Stewart”, rejected by Vanity Fair in 1924, was discovered among Donald Ogden Stewart’s letters and will be published in the October issue of Harper’s. Although based on a real incident when Ogden Stewart was in a bull fight in Spain, the writer wasn’t impressed with the story, writing in his autobiography about Hemingway: “I had decided that written humor was not his dish.” When Vanity Fair requested permission to reprint it was rejected by Hemingway’s estate. Hemingway’s son Patrick told the Independent: “I’m not a great fan of Vanity Fair. It’s a sort of luxury thinker’s magazine, for people who get their satisfaction out of driving a Jaguar instead of a Mini.” Read more here.

Laura

Brokeback Mountain – From Book to Film to Opera

September 13, 2013

A new opera based on Annie Proulx’s story Brokeback Mountain, originally commissioned for New York City Opera, will have its world premiere at the Teatro Real in Madrid on January 28. Ms. Proulx, whose cowboy romance was made into an award-winning film in 2005, has written the libretto, saying that “one of her goals in writing it was to preserve the dry and laconic western tone of the story.” She and composer Charles Wuorinen began developing the opera at an artist’s retreat in Wyoming five years ago. A Pulitzer Prize and MacArthur grant winner, Mr. Wuorinen’s previous opera was based on Salman Rushdie’s novel Haroun and the Sea of Stories. This new opera will star Canadian bass-baritone Daniel Okulitch and American tenor Tom Randle as Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist, respectively (played in the film version by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal). So will this opera version include the famous line: “I wish I knew how to quit you?” Guess we’ll just have to wait. Read more here.

Laura

Man Booker Prize Shortlist Announced

September 10, 2013

Finalists for the 2013 Man Booker Prize, Britain’s most prestigious literary award were announced this morning. Open to writers from Britain, Ireland or one of the Commonwealth nations, the prize has been criticized in the past as “either too popular or not readable enough.” This year’s shortlist includes the following six finalists:

We need New Names, by NoViolet Bulawayo
The Luminaries, by Eleanor Catton
Harvest, by Jim Crace
The Lowland, by Jhumpa Lahiri
A Tale for the Time Being, by Ruth Ozeki
The Testament of Mary, by Colm Tóibín

The winner, to be named on October 15 in London, will receive a cash prize of 50,000 pounds (or approximately $78,000). Read the full article here.

Laura

Hercule Poirot To Flex His Little Grey Cells Once More

September 6, 2013

Agatha Christie’s estate and HarperCollins plan to publish a new Hercule Poirot mystery next fall. British author Sophie Hannah has been commissioned to write the new Poirot 93 years after he was first introduced in The Mysterious Affair at Styles. The Belgian sleuth was killed off in the final Poirot novel Curtain published shortly before Ms. Christie’s death in 1975. The new book will be set in the late 1920s, but will not feature Poirot’s friend Captain Hastings. In a statement, Ms. Hannah said: “It is almost impossible to put into words how honored I am to have been entrusted with this amazing project — in fact, I still can’t quite believe that this is really happening! I hope to create a puzzle that will confound and frustrate the incomparable Hercule Poirot for at least a good few chapters.” Read more in this article. And check the EPL catalog for other works by Agatha Christie.

Laura